Emmaus Council Explores Automated Trash Collection

Councilman Brent Labenberg pretty much trashed a committee report delivered by Councilman R. Erick Reinhard at Monday night’s Emmaus Borough Council meeting.

The report, from the “Health, Sanitation and Conservation” committee, was about, well, trash. Or more specifically, trash collection in the borough and a meeting the committee had with Raritan Valley Disposal about automated trash pickup.

According to Reinhard, who chairs the committee, automated pickup could result in a potential cost savings for the borough. The committee, he said, is looking into automated recycling pick-up first.

The savings, he explained, would come from the fact that tonnage collected would increase and the automated trucks only require a single employee -- the driver.

Labenberg opposes the idea of automated trash pick-up on many fronts, including the size of the containers the automated trucks require – typically 95 gallon totes – which he says are too big and heavy for seniors to move and won’t fit in the typical 1950s-style Emmaus garage, along with a car.

Plus, Labenberg said, the automated trucks pick up trash containers one at a time and compact the trash after each container, a slow and noisy process.

“Have you ever heard one of them?” Labenberg asked. “They are loud. They (Raritan Valley) are just improving their bottom line. I’ve said it before. I won’t support it, so you can study it all you want.”

Councilman Mike Waddell, who is also on the committee, said that the conversation with Raritan Valley was just that – a conversation.

“Brent, we all have those same concerns,” said Waddell. “We are looking into it. It is just talking at this point. I thought it was one of the best meetings we have had in a long time. It’s just a discussion. It is down the road as it were.”

Other aspects of the meeting with Raritan Valley included the possibility of moving the borough from three trash collection zones picked up twice a week, to five zones, picked up once a week. Since Raritan Valley would be sending a truck into the borough one less day per week, this could result in another potential cost savings, Reinhard reported.

Labenberg questioned the actual savings from once-a-week pickup and whether council was even allowed to change its trash collection services at this point.

“All this time you are spending might be moot,” he said.